Processing electronic mail replies

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are various embodiments for processing email and/or reply emails. A contact entry associated with a user issue is created. The contact entry is associated with an issue category based upon a context of the contact entry. A unique email token associated with the contact entry is generated. Emails sent to the user are generated with a reply-to address that incorporates the email token.

BACKGROUND

Customers of an enterprise, such as an electronic commerce site, productmanufacturer, customer call center, or any other type of environment inwhich customers initiate contact to resolve issues, may communicate withthe enterprise customer service department or personnel via email.Exposing email addresses to the public creates a risk of large volumesof unauthorized or spam emails being sent to the exposed emailaddresses, which may require human intervention and/or analysis todetermine whether the email was sent by an actual customer such thatresolution of the customer issue is required. This can create potentialwasted resources and/or time of enterprise personnel in the processingand/or analysis of these unauthorized emails that may be better spent onresolving customer issues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood withreference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings arenot necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a networked environment according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 2A-2B are drawings of an example email generating by the emailprocessing application executed by the computing device of FIG. 1according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a drawing of an example reply email that can be processed bythe email processing application executed by the computing device ofFIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 4-5 are flowcharts providing examples of the operation of the itemtracking application of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram that provides one exampleillustration of a computing device employed in the networked environmentof FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods that can reduceunauthorized electronic mail (email) that is received by a mail serverand/or group of mail servers associated with an enterprise that mayreceive inquiries from customers and generate email responses that aresent to customers. Embodiments of the disclosure provide a frameworkthat also allows for tracking, routing and/or escalation of inquiriesfrom customers. Emails are often generated by an enterprise and sent toemail addresses associated with a customer account. These emails arerelated to issues and/or inquiries initiated by a customer and are oftensent with a “reply-to” and/or “from” email address that is a customerservice email address. By exposing a customer service email address inthis way, the enterprise may be subjected to a large volume ofunauthorized, unsolicited, and/or “spam” email message that are sent tothis customer service email address, particularly in the case of a highprofile or large enterprise that may serve millions of customers.

Employing a blanket restriction or rejection of emails sent to such acustomer service email address may prevent customers of the enterprisefrom continuing contact with customer service personnel regarding thecustomer's initial inquiry or issue. Accordingly, embodiments of thedisclosure provide the ability to generate customer specific or issuespecific email addresses that a customer can use to correspond withpersonnel of an enterprise while also providing the ability to rejectunauthorized messages received at such an email address, therebyreducing the amount of email messages that require human intervention oranalysis. Additionally, embodiments of the disclosure can alsofacilitate post processing of a customer email, issue tracking, andescalation of issues based upon email received from a customer from atsuch an address. In the following discussion, a general description ofthe system and its components is provided, followed by a discussion ofthe operation of the same.

With reference to FIG. 1, shown is a networked environment 100 accordingto various embodiments. The networked environment 100 includes one ormore computing devices 103 in data communication with one or moreclients 106 by way of a network 109. The network 109 includes, forexample, the Internet, intranets, extranets, wide area networks (WANs),local area networks (LANs), wired networks, wireless networks, or othersuitable networks, etc., or any combination of two or more suchnetworks.

The computing device 103 may comprise, for example, a server computer orany other system providing computing capability. Alternatively, aplurality of computing devices 103 may be employed that are arranged,for example, in one or more server banks or computer banks or otherarrangements. For example, a plurality of computing devices 103 togethermay comprise a cloud computing resource, a grid computing resource,and/or any other distributed computing arrangement. Such computingdevices 103 may be located in a single installation or may bedistributed among many different geographical locations. For purposes ofconvenience, the computing device 103 is referred to herein in thesingular. Even though the computing device 103 is referred to in thesingular, it is understood that a plurality of computing devices 103 maybe employed in the various arrangements as described above.

The components executed on the computing device 103, for example,include an issue tracking application 119 that includes an emailprocessing application 121, and other applications, services, processes,systems, engines, or functionality not discussed in detail herein. Theissue tracking application 119 is executed to facilitate management ofissues that are reported by and/or associated with users, such ascustomers of an electronic commerce system. In other words, the issuetracking application 119 can represent an application that managescustomer service issues for an entity. For example, the issue trackingapplication 119 can represent a customer relationship management (CRM)application or suite of applications that allows personnel to createand/or manage data associated with customer service issues in anenterprise. These issues can include trouble tickets, requests forservice (e.g., maintenance, repair), refund requests, complaints, or anyother type of data associated with a customer in a customer servicecontext. Therefore, the issue tracking application 119 can facilitatecategorization of issues reported by users, routing and/or escalation ofissues to appropriate personnel or teams of personnel, reporting ofaggregate customer service data related to these issues, and otherfunctionality that can be provided in such a context that is notdiscussed in further detail herein, as it is unnecessary for a fullunderstanding of the embodiments of the disclosure.

The email processing application 121 is executed to facilitategenerating email addresses that are customer specific and/or issuespecific that a customer and enterprise personnel can use to correspondregarding an inquiry and/or issue initiated by a customer. In responseto creation of an issue or a user initiated contact with an enterprise,the email processing application 121 can create an email address tokenthat can be used as a part of the “local-part” or username portion of anemail address. In other words, the email processing application 121 cancreate a tokenized email address. As described herein, this tokenizedemail address can then be used for subsequent correspondence with thecustomer regarding the issue or user initiated contact. Additionally,the email processing application 121 can also monitor incoming email toone or more email systems associated with the enterprise and eitherreject unauthorized email or appropriately route authorized email thatis received at the tokenized email address.

The data stored in the data store 113 includes, for example, contacts133. In the context of this disclosure, a contact 133 represents acustomer initiated contact with an enterprise, such as an electroniccommerce site, regarding an issue. For example, as noted above, such anissue can include a request for a refund for a product, a request forproduct repair service, or any other customer service requests as can beappreciated. As another example, a contact 133 can also be created byenterprise personnel without initiation of contact with a customerservice department. For example, one or more users may encounter issuesinteracting with a site operated by the enterprise. Accordingly,enterprise personnel can create a contact 133 associated with the one ormore users who experienced such an issue and proactively contact theusers via email to offer a concession and/or information regarding theissue. Each contact 133 is associated with a token 141. A token 141represents any alphanumeric identifier that is generated by the emailprocessing application 121 that can be at least a portion of a tokenizedemail address that can used on a customer specific and/or contact 133specific basis. A token 141 is also uniquely associated with a contact133 within the data store 113. In this sense, a token 141 is unique inthe sense that no other token 141 that is associated with an activecontact 133 can have the same alphanumeric identifier. In someembodiments, the token 141 can be an identifier by which contacts 133are indexed in the data store 113.

A contact 133 can also be associated with one or more issue categories143 that specify one or more categories or types corresponding to thesubject matter of a customer initiated contact 133. For example, if acustomer initiates contact with an enterprise seeking product repairservice for a product purchase from an electronic commerce site, thecontact 133 can be categorized as such and assigned by the issuetracking application 119 to the appropriate personnel and/or team ofpersonnel to provide the appropriate customer assistance. As anotherexample, a customer seeking a refund may cause the contact 133 to becategorized as such so that the issue tracking application 119 canassign the contact 133 to personnel who can determine whether a refundis appropriate and provide the refund to the customer.

Each contact 133 is also associated with a status 145 indicator, whichspecifies whether the token 141 associated with a contact 133 isactivated or deactivated. In this sense, an activated token 141corresponds to a tokenized email address at which the email processingapplication 121 accepts email sent from users and/or customers. Adeactivated token 141 corresponds to a tokenized email address at whichthe email processing application 121 rejects received emails. In someembodiments, the status 145 indicator can also be associated withwhether the issue related to the contact 133 is resolved or unresolved.In this scenario, an unresolved status indicator corresponds to acontact 133 associated with an issue that personnel associated with theenterprise are still working to resolve. In other words, an unresolvedstatus can also correspond to an open trouble ticket. A resolved statusindicator corresponds to an issue that personnel associated with theenterprise have resolved and have communicated the resolution to acustomer associated with the contact 133. In other words, a resolvedstatus indicator corresponds to a closed trouble ticket.

Each contact 133 is also associated with an indicator that identifies anassociated user 147 with which the contact 133 corresponds. In otherwords, the associated user 147 of a contact 133 represents the customerwho initiated contact with an enterprise. The associated user 147indication can be an account number, user identifier, or any otheridentifier with which account information of the user can be identified.In some cases, a contact 133 can be associated with more than one user.

Each customer of the enterprise is associated with a user 135 entry inthe data store 113. A user 135 can be associated with various customeraccount information such as, for example, contact information, orderhistories, shipping addresses, mailing addresses, and/or otherinformation that can be associated with a customer account as can beappreciated but which is not discussed in further detail herein.Additionally, each user 135 is also associated with one or more emailaddresses 151. An email address 151 of a user 135 is one that theenterprise can contact a customer regarding customer service issues.Additionally, an email address 151 can also be associated with the user135 as a part of a contact form or provided by the user during a phonecall initiated by the user to a customer service department of anenterprise.

The depicted table structure of the data store 113 is one example of howdata can be structured therein according to embodiments of thisdisclosure, as it should be appreciated that data can be structured inmany different ways across multiple data stores implemented in variouscomputing devices. Data can be extracted by the issue trackingapplication 119 and/or email processing application 121 by performingqueries against data stored in the data store in wholly different tablestructures. In various embodiments, the data store 113 may comprise arelational or non-relational database, or any other type of system fromwhich data can be retrieved. Accordingly, it should be appreciated thatthe depicted data store 113 and the table structure shown therein is butone example given for ease of depiction and explanation of the variousembodiments of this disclosure. Additionally, the data store 113 may beprovided in a first computing device 103 (or cluster of computingdevices) and the issue tracking application 119 and/or email processingapplication 121 in a second and/or third computing device 103 (orclusters of computing devices) that communicate over a network 109. Itshould be appreciated that the particular illustration shown in the FIG.1 is shown for ease of depiction.

Likewise, it should also be appreciated that the particular depiction ofan issue tracking application 119 and email processing application 121executed in one or more computing devices 103 is but one example of anenvironment in which an embodiment of the disclosure can be implemented.It should be appreciated that an implementation according to anembodiment of the disclosure can be implemented in various ways, withthe functionality described herein implemented in various applicationstructures.

The client 106 is representative of a plurality of client devices thatmay be coupled to the network 109. The client 106 may comprise, forexample, a processor-based system such as a computer system. Such acomputer system may be embodied in the form of a desktop computer, alaptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a cellular telephone,set-top box, music players, tablet computer systems, game consoles, orother devices with like capability.

The client 106 may be configured to execute various applications such asan email application 163, a browser 169, and/or other applications. Theemail application 163 is executed in the client 106 to facilitatecommunication with others via email. The browser 169 may be executed ina client 106, for example, to access and render network pages, such asweb pages, or other network content served up by the computing device103 and/or other servers. Additionally, a user may interact with a siteproviding email services via the browser 169 to communicate with othersvia email. The client 106 may be configured to execute applicationsbeyond the email application 163 or the browser 169 such as, forexample, instant message applications, word processing applications,spreadsheet application, drawing applications, and/or otherapplications.

Next, a general description of the operation of the various componentsof the networked environment 100 is provided. According to oneembodiment, a user 135 or customer initiates contact with an enterprise,such as with a customer service department of the enterprise. Thecustomer may be seeking customer service or resolution of some issuerelated to a purchase or other type of interaction with the enterprise.The customer can initiate contact with the enterprise via phone,emailing a customer service email address, completing a web basedcontact form, or other form of communication. In response, personnel ofthe enterprise can, via the issue tracking application 119, create acontact 133 in the data store 113 corresponding the customer initiatedcontact. The contact 133 can also include additional information aboutthe issue to facilitate resolution by enterprise personnel. Based uponthe subject matter of the customer initiated contact, the issue trackingapplication 119 specifies an issue category 143 associated with thecontact 133.

The issue category 143 can be selected by a user initiated contact withthe enterprise (e.g., via a web-based contact form), or by personnel ofthe enterprise (e.g., upon receiving a phone call initiated by thecustomer). Based upon the selected issue category 143, the issuetracking application 119 can route the contact 133 to the appropriatepersonnel and/or team of personnel. For example, certain issuecategories 143, such as a customer requested return or refund, may bebest resolved by a specialized refund and return processing team.Therefore, the issue tracking application 119 can route the contact 133to the appropriate team in such a scenario. Upon creation of a contact133 corresponding to a customer initiated contact, the email processingapplication 121 can create a token 141 corresponding to the contact 133.As noted above, the token 141 represents a unique identifier that can beused as at least a portion of a unique email address with which the userassociated with the contact 133 can correspond regarding the customerservice issue that prompted creation of the contact 133. In someembodiments, the email processing application 121 generate a token 141with a hash function and/or other function that generates a randomidentifier such that the token 141 itself does not reveal anyinformation about the contact 133. Upon creation of the token 141, theemail processing application 141 can designate the status 145 indicatorassociated with the contact 133 and/or token 141 as deactivated until anemail is sent to a customer and/or user associated with the contact 133by the enterprise.

In some embodiments, as an alternative example, upon resolution of theissue corresponding to the contact 133 by personnel of an enterprise,the issue tracking application 119 and/or email processing application121 can designate the status 145 of the contact 133 as “resolved,”“closed,” or any other appropriate status indicator that indicates thatthe issue associated with the contact 133 has been resolved. In anyembodiment, the status 145 indicator can be used by the email processingapplication 121 to indicate whether emails sent to a tokenized emailaddress should be accepted or rejected.

Thereafter, the email processing application 121 can send an email toone or more email addresses associated with the customer's user 135account, where the email that provides information regarding resolutionof the issue. The email processing application 121 can also generate atokenized email address that incorporates the token 141 corresponding tothe contact 133. The tokenized email address can include the token 141as a part of the local-part and/or domain name of the email address. Inone embodiment, the token 141 can be appended to a user name and theresultant string used as the local-part of the email address. As shouldbe appreciated by a person of ordinary skill in the art, the local-partof an email address is the portion of the email address that generallyappears before the “@” symbol that is used in an email address. Forexample, in one embodiment, the local-part of the email address canfollow a format as follows:

-   -   username+token@domain

In the above non-limiting example, the username can be, for example, auser friendly string that provides an indication to a user of thedestination address to which the email address corresponds. For example,in the case of an email address corresponding to a customer servicedepartment, an example user friendly username is “cs-email.” The token141 in the above illustration can be any alphanumeric identifier that isunique within the universe of contacts 133 in the data store 113.

Accordingly, upon generating the tokenized email address, the emailaddress is then used as a “from” address and/or a “reply-to” address ofan email 173 that is generated and sent to the user 135 email address151 regarding resolution of the customer's issue. Thereafter, when theuser creates a reply email 175 to the email 173 via an email application163 and/or cloud based email site in a browser 169, the reply email 175is created with a “to” address as the tokenized email address. Uponobtaining the reply email 175 sent to the tokenized email address, theemail processing application 121 can identify the token 141 in the “to”address of the reply email 175, where the “to” address is the tokenizedemail address.

The email processing application 121 can then identify the contact 133in the data store 113 to which the reply email 175 corresponds basedupon the token 141 extracted from the reply email 175. The emailprocessing application 121 can then perform post processing operationsthat can be associated with the issue category 143 corresponding to thecontact 133 entry. For example, the email processing application 121 caninitiate escalation procedures if a reply email 175 is received thatcorresponds to a contact 133 entry by forwarding the reply email 175 toappropriate personnel that are associated with the issue category 143.As another example, the email processing application 121 can forward thereply email 175 to the very same person who issued the email 173containing the issue resolution information to the customer.

Additionally, the email processing application 121 can perform filteringbased upon the extracted token 141 from the “to” address from the replyemail 175 header. For example, the email processing application 121 canidentify the sender of the reply email 175 by identifying a “from”address in the reply email 175 header. If the sender of the reply email175 is not an email address 151 corresponding to the associated user 147of the reply email 175, the email processing application 121 cangenerate and send a rejection email to the sender of the reply email175. Additionally, the token 141 associated with the email 173 can beassociated with an expiry window, or a predetermined and/or configurablethreshold of time from the sending of the email 173 after which a replyemail 175 sent to the tokenized email address are rejected. If a replyemail 175 is received that is sent to a tokenized email address that isassociated with an expired token 141, the email processing application121 can also issue a rejection email. In another approach, the emailprocessing application 121 can issue a rejection email to the sender ifthe status 145 of the contact 133 associated with the token 141indicates that the token 141 is “deactivated.” As an additional example,the email processing application 121 can issue a rejection email to thesender if the status 145 of the contact associated with the token 141 is“unresolved,” or “open.” In this scenario, the issue associated with thecontact 133 may not yet be ripe for unsolicited emails from thecustomer, as no email 173 has yet been created and sent to theassociated user 147 by the email processing application 121.

Accordingly, a rejection email can advise the user of an appropriatereason for rejection of the reply email 175 sent by the sender. Forexample, if the sender of a reply email 175 is not associated with thecontact 133 corresponding to the extracted token 141, then the emailprocessing application 121 can advise the sender via a rejection emailthat the user is not authorized to send email to the tokenized emailaddress. As another example, if the reply email 175 is received from anemail address 151 associated with the contact 133 but is also receivedafter an expiry window associated with the corresponding token 141, therejection email can advise the sender that the tokenized email addressto which the reply email 175 was sent has passed. In this scenario, theemail processing application 121 can advise the sender of alternativecontact methods with which the user can contact an enterprise associatedwith the email processing application 121 to obtain customer service.

Additionally, in the event that the reply email 175 is associated with a“deactivated” token 141, the rejection email generated by the emailprocessing application 121 can advise the sender that emails sent to thetokenized address are unauthorized and/or unsolicited. In this sense,emails sent to the tokenized email address are unsolicited when acontact 133 is in a deactivated status 145, and emails sent to thetokenized address are solicited when a reply email 175 is sent by anassociated user 147 only after the email 173 is sent by the emailprocessing application 121 and the token 141 is activated. As yetanother example of filtering that can be performed by the emailprocessing application 121 a maximum threshold number of reply emails175 and/or inbound emails that can be sent to the tokenized emailaddress can be specified to limit the ability of an attacker to floodthe tokenized email address with a high volume of emails. If such athreshold has been exceeded, the email processing application 121 cangenerate a rejection email message to the sender that the tokenizedemail address has been disabled due to potential abuse.

Referring next to FIGS. 2A-2B, shown is an example of an email 173 thatcan be generated by the email processing application 121 according tovarious embodiments of the disclosure. In the depicted example, theemail 173 is created in response to customer initiated contact with anenterprise associated with the email processing application 121.Accordingly, the issue tracking application 119 can generate a contact133 that corresponds to the customer initiated contact as well as acorresponding unique token 141. Personnel associated with the enterprisecan then resolve a related customer issue and cause the contact 133 tobe marked as “resolved,” or the token 141 activated. In some scenarios,the actual customer service issue related to the contact 133 may not yetbe resolved, but an email can be sent to the customer advising thecustomer of the status of the customer's issue, in which case, thecontact 133 can also be marked as “resolved” or the token 141 activated.Upon resolution of the contact 133 or activation of the associated token141 the email processing application 121 generates an email 173 thatincludes resolution information that is automatically generated from anemail form template or provided by personnel associated with theenterprise. The email 173 containing resolution information associatedwith the contact 133 can then be sent to one or more email addresses 151of the associated user 147.

In this example, as is shown in FIGS. 2A-2B, the “from” addressassociated with the email differs from the “reply-to” address of theemail 173. In other words, the “reply-to” address is a tokenized emailaddress 203 where at least a portion of the address includes the token141. In contrast, the “from” address of the email 173 does not includethe token. In this way, the tokenized email address is obfuscated fromthe recipient of the email 173 to a degree, which can also serve tolimit unauthorized email sent to the tokenized email address 203. In oneembodiment, the “from” address of the email 175 can comprise a“local-part” that is any type of username or string, and the“local-part” of the tokenized email address 203 is the same username orstring with the token 141 appended thereto. In other embodiments, the“local-part” of the tokenized email address 203 can comprise only thetoken 141 or the token 141 appended to or concatenated with any otherstring other than the username of the “from” address of the email 173.Additionally, in some embodiments, the “from” address of the email 173can comprise an unmonitored email address and/or non-working emailaddress.

Reference is now made to FIG. 3, which illustrates a reply email 175that results from a user replying to the email 173 sent by the emailprocessing application 121. In the example shown in FIG. 3, because the“reply-to” address of the email 173 is designated by the emailprocessing application 121 as a tokenized email address 203corresponding to a unique token 141 that is in turn associated with thecontact 133 from the data store 113, the “to” address of the reply email175 becomes the tokenized email address 203. Therefore, the user cansend the reply email 175 to the tokenized email address 203, and therecipient mail server can be configured to route the reply email 175 tothe email processing application 121. By providing a framework withwhich the user can correspond with personnel associated with anenterprise via a reply email 175 the likelihood of contextualinformation contained in the exchanged emails (e.g., the content of theoriginal email 173) is increased, thereby potentially facilitatingfaster resolution of the issue by enterprise personnel.

Therefore, in the example of FIG. 3, when the reply email 175 isobtained by the email processing application 121, the email processingapplication 121 can determine whether a valid token 141 can be extractedfrom the “to” address of the reply email 175. In this sense, a token 141can be validated if there exists a contact 133 having a token 141matching the one extracted from the reply email 175. If the reply email175 contains a valid token 141, the email processing application 121 canthen validate the sender of the reply email 175 by determining whetherthe sender (e.g., the email address associated with the “from” addressof the reply email 175) matches an email address 151 of the associateduser 147 of the contact 133. The email processing application can alsovalidate whether the reply email 175 was sent by the sender and/orreceived by the email processing application 121 within an expiry windowassociated with the token 141. Additionally, the email processingapplication 121 can validate whether the contact 133 that corresponds tothe extracted token 141 is associated with a token 141 that is in an“activated” status 145. As an alternative example, the email processingapplication 121 can validate whether the token 141 corresponds to acontact 133 that is associated with a status 145 corresponding to a“resolved” issue.

If any of the above validation steps fail, then, as noted above, theemail processing application 121 can generate and send a rejection emailthat contains an error message to the sender (e.g., the “from” addressof the reply email 175). If the email processing application 121 canvalidate the reply email 175, then the email processing application 121can initiate post processing operations, which can include forwardingthe reply email 175 to the appropriate personnel, changing an escalationstatus of the contact 133

Referring next to FIGS. 4-5, shown is a flowchart that provides oneexample of the operation of a portion of the email processingapplication 121 according to various embodiments. It is understood thatthe flowcharts of FIGS. 4-5 provide merely examples of the manydifferent types of functional arrangements that may be employed toimplement the operation of the portion of the email processingapplication 121 as described herein. As an alternative, the flowchartsof FIGS. 4-5 may be viewed as depicting an example of steps of a methodimplemented in the computing device 103 (FIG. 1) according to one ormore embodiments.

Beginning with box 401, the email processing application 121 can obtaininformation about a user initiated contact. As noted above, userinitiated contact can comprise customer initiated contact with acustomer service department of an enterprise for customer service,information, and/or resolution of any issue that a customer may have.The user initiated contact may comprise phone initiated contact withpersonnel of the enterprise, an email sent to a customer service emailaddress, submission of a web based or other type of contact form, or anyother methods of initiating contact that can be provided to customers.

In box 403, the email processing application 121 generates a contact 133entry associated with the customer initiated contact in the data store113. Based upon the context or subject matter of the customer initiatedcontact, the email processing application 121 and/or issue trackingapplication 119 can assign an issue category 143 to the contact 133entry in box 405. The issue category 143 can be assigned based uponcontext of the user initiated communication and/or a selection of acategory by the customer and/or customer service personnel. In box 407,the email processing application 121 generates a token 141 that can beincorporated into an email 173 that is sent to a user regardingresolution of an issue related to the contact 133 entry. As noted above,the token 141 can be a unique alphanumeric identifier that can be usedas at least a portion of an email address that is specified as a“reply-to” and/or “from” address associated with the email 173. In someembodiments, the token 141 can comprise the entire email address that isassociated with the email 173 rather than just a subpart of the emailaddress.

In box 411, the email processing application can activate the token 141corresponding to the contact 133 entry. In other words, when the emailprocessing application 121 generates an email 173 that is sent to acustomer corresponding to a contact 133, whether the email 173 is anautomatically generated response or a response that is written bypersonnel responded to the contact 133 made by the customer, thecorresponding token 141 is activated such a tokenized email addressincorporating the token 141 is also activated. In some embodiments, whenthe issue associated with the contact 133 entry is changed to a resolvedstatus 145 by enterprise personnel, the email processing application 121generates a tokenized email address that incorporates the token 141,which also corresponds to activation of the token 141. In box 413, theemail processing application 121 identifies one or more email addresses151 that correspond to the associated user 147 of the resolved contact133 entry. In box 415, the email processing application 121 sends anemail to the identified one or more email addresses 151, where the bodyof the email can be automatically generated based upon the issuecategory 143 associated with the contact 133 and/or provided byenterprise personnel. In any case, the email contains resolutioninformation that is related to the contact 133.

Referring next to FIG. 5, shown is an example of how the emailprocessing application 121 can process and validate an inbound replyemail 175. In box 501, the email processing application obtains a replyemail 175 that is sent to a tokenized email address. In box 503, theemail processing application 121 extracts the token 141 from thetokenized email address. In box 505, the email processing application121 determines whether the token 141 extracted from the tokenized emailaddress is an expired token. In other words, the email processingapplication 121 determines whether the reply email 175 was receivedwithin an expiry window associated with the token 141. If so, then theemail processing application 121 can generate a rejection email messagein box 511 and send the rejection email message to the sender in box513. In this scenario, the rejection email message can advise the senderthat the token 141 and/or tokenized email address has expired and advisethe sender of alternative ways to contact a customer service departmentassociated with the enterprise or any other error message as can beappreciated.

In box 506, the email processing application 121 determines whether thestatus 145 associated with the contact 133 corresponding to the token141 is in an “activated” and/or “resolved” state. In other words, theemail processing application 121 determines whether the token 141 hasbeen activated. If not, then the tokenized email address can be deemedinactive, as the issue associated with the contact 133 may not yet beripe for customer inquiries. In this sense, the tokenized email addressassociated with the token 141 can be activated only when an email 173 isfirst sent to a customer associated with the contact 133. If the status145 associated with the token 141 is in a deactivated and/or anunresolved state, then the email processing application 121 generates arejection email message in box 511 and sends the rejection email messageto the sender of the reply email 175 in box 513 that contains an errormessage.

In box 507, the email processing application 121 identifies one or moreemail addresses 151 corresponding to the associated user 147 associatedwith the contact entry 133 corresponding to the extracted token 141. If,in box 509, the email processing application 121 determines that thesender of the reply email 175 fails to match the email addresses 151 ofthe associated user 147, the email processing application can generate arejection email message in box 511 and send the rejection email messageto the sender of the reply email 175 in box 513. In this scenario, therejection email message can advise the sender that the sender is not anauthorized user of the tokenized email address or any other errormessage.

If the reply email 175 is validated according to the abovedeterminations, then the email processing application 121 proceeds tobox 515, where one or more issue categories 143 are identified thatcorrespond to the token 141 and/or associated contact 133 entry. In box517, the email processing application 121 performs routing, escalation,or takes any other action based upon the issue categories 143 associatedwith the reply email 175. In some embodiments, the email processingapplication 121 can perform escalation depending on a number of replyemails 175 that have been received that correspond to a particular token141. For example, if a user has exchanged multiple emails with acustomer service department that are associated with a particulartokenized email address, this might be a measure of increasing customerdissatisfaction, and the email processing application 121 can escalatethe issue associated with the contact 133 entry to different personnelbased upon the number of emails received from an authorized user of thetokenized email address.

With reference to FIG. 6, shown is a schematic block diagram of thecomputing device 103 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The computing device 103 includes at least one processorcircuit, for example, having a processor 603 and a memory 606, both ofwhich are coupled to a local interface 609. To this end, the computingdevice 103 may comprise, for example, at least one server computer orlike device. The local interface 609 may comprise, for example, a databus with an accompanying address/control bus or other bus structure ascan be appreciated.

Stored in the memory 606 are both data and several components that areexecutable by the processor 603. In particular, stored in the memory 606and executable by the processor 603 are the issue tracking application119, email processing application 121, and potentially otherapplications. Also stored in the memory 606 may be a data store 113 andother data. In addition, an operating system may be stored in the memory606 and executable by the processor 603.

It is understood that there may be other applications that are stored inthe memory 606 and are executable by the processors 603 as can beappreciated. Where any component discussed herein is implemented in theform of software, any one of a number of programming languages may beemployed such as, for example, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java,Javascript, Perl, PHP, Visual Basic, Python, Ruby, Delphi, Flash, orother programming languages.

A number of software components are stored in the memory 606 and areexecutable by the processor 603. In this respect, the term “executable”means a program file that is in a form that can ultimately be run by theprocessor 603. Examples of executable programs may be, for example, acompiled program that can be translated into machine code in a formatthat can be loaded into a random access portion of the memory 606 andrun by the processor 603, source code that may be expressed in properformat such as object code that is capable of being loaded into a randomaccess portion of the memory 606 and executed by the processor 603, orsource code that may be interpreted by another executable program togenerate instructions in a random access portion of the memory 606 to beexecuted by the processor 603, etc. An executable program may be storedin any portion or component of the memory 606 including, for example,random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive,solid-state drive, USB flash drive, memory card, optical disc such ascompact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetictape, or other memory components.

The memory 606 is defined herein as including both volatile andnonvolatile memory and data storage components. Volatile components arethose that do not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatilecomponents are those that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, thememory 606 may comprise, for example, random access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flashdrives, memory cards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disksaccessed via an associated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed viaan optical disc drive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tapedrive, and/or other memory components, or a combination of any two ormore of these memory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, forexample, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other suchdevices. The ROM may comprise, for example, a programmable read-onlymemory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), anelectrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or otherlike memory device.

Also, the processor 603 may represent multiple processors 603 and thememory 606 may represent multiple memories 606 that operate in parallelprocessing circuits, respectively. In such a case, the local interface609 may be an appropriate network 109 (FIG. 1) that facilitatescommunication between any two of the multiple processors 603, betweenany processor 603 and any of the memories 606, or between any two of thememories 606, etc. The local interface 609 may comprise additionalsystems designed to coordinate this communication, including, forexample, performing load balancing. The processor 603 may be ofelectrical or of some other available construction.

Although the email processing application 121, issue trackingapplication 119, and other various systems described herein may beembodied in software or code executed by general purpose hardware asdiscussed above, as an alternative the same may also be embodied indedicated hardware or a combination of software/general purpose hardwareand dedicated hardware. If embodied in dedicated hardware, each can beimplemented as a circuit or state machine that employs any one of or acombination of a number of technologies. These technologies may include,but are not limited to, discrete logic circuits having logic gates forimplementing various logic functions upon an application of one or moredata signals, application specific integrated circuits havingappropriate logic gates, or other components, etc. Such technologies aregenerally well known by those skilled in the art and, consequently, arenot described in detail herein.

The flowcharts of FIGS. 4 and 5 show the functionality and operation ofan implementation of portions of the application. If embodied insoftware, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of codethat comprises program instructions to implement the specified logicalfunction(s). The program instructions may be embodied in the form ofsource code that comprises human-readable statements written in aprogramming language or machine code that comprises numericalinstructions recognizable by a suitable execution system such as aprocessor 603 in a computer system or other system. The machine code maybe converted from the source code, etc. If embodied in hardware, eachblock may represent a circuit or a number of interconnected circuits toimplement the specified logical function(s).

Although the flowcharts of FIGS. 4 and 5 show a specific order ofexecution, it is understood that the order of execution may differ fromthat which is depicted. For example, the order of execution of two ormore blocks may be scrambled relative to the order shown. Also, two ormore blocks shown in succession in FIGS. 4 and 5 may be executedconcurrently or with partial concurrence. Further, in some embodiments,one or more of the blocks shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 may be skipped oromitted. In addition, any number of counters, state variables, warningsemaphores, or messages might be added to the logical flow describedherein, for purposes of enhanced utility, accounting, performancemeasurement, or providing troubleshooting aids, etc. It is understoodthat all such variations are within the scope of the present disclosure.

Also, any logic or application described herein, including the issuetracking application 119 and/or email processing application 121, thatcomprises software or code can be embodied in any non-transitorycomputer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instructionexecution system such as, for example, a processor 603 in a computersystem or other system. In this sense, the logic may comprise, forexample, statements including instructions and declarations that can befetched from the computer-readable medium and executed by theinstruction execution system. In the context of the present disclosure,a “computer-readable medium” can be any medium that can contain, store,or maintain the logic or application described herein for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system. The computer-readablemedium can comprise any one of many physical media such as, for example,magnetic, optical, or semiconductor media. More specific examples of asuitable computer-readable medium would include, but are not limited to,magnetic tapes, magnetic floppy diskettes, magnetic hard drives, memorycards, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, or optical discs. Also, thecomputer-readable medium may be a random access memory (RAM) including,for example, static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM). Inaddition, the computer-readable medium may be a read-only memory (ROM),a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmableread-only memory (EEPROM), or other type of memory device.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations setforth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure.Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit andprinciples of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure andprotected by the following claims.

Therefore, the following is claimed:
 1. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium embodying at least one program executable in atleast one first computing device, wherein, when executed, the at leastone program causes the at least one first computing device to at least:generate a contact entry in a data store, the contact entry associatedwith a user initiation of communication with an enterprise, the contactentry further associated with an issue to be resolved; associate thecontact entry with an issue category based at least in part upon theissue associated with the contact entry; generate a token associatedwith the contact entry in response to associating the contact entry withthe issue category, the token being a unique identifier; generate anemail associated with the contact entry, the email associated with atokenized email address incorporating at least a portion of the token,the email associated with a resolution state of the issue associatedwith the contact entry; designate a username as a portion of alocal-part of the tokenized email address, the at least a portion of thetoken being appended to the username, the username associated with anoriginal email address of the enterprise; designate a “reply-to” addressof the email as the tokenized email address; designate a “from” addressof the email as the original email address associated with the username;send the email to at least one user email address associated with anaccount of a user associated with the contact entry; obtain a replyemail that is sent to the tokenized email address from a sender;determine that the sender of the reply email corresponds to the user bydetermining that a “from” address of the reply email matches the atleast one user email address; determine that the reply email is receivedwithin an expiry window associated with the tokenized email address, theexpiry window comprising a window of time outside of which the tokenizedemail address is expired; and determine that the token is in anactivated state in response to determining that the reply email isreceived within the expiry window.
 2. A system comprising: an electronicdata store configured to store at least specific computer-executableinstructions; and a computing device comprising a hardware processor andin communication with the electronic data store, the computing deviceconfigured to execute the at least specific computer-executableinstructions to at least: generate a contact entry in the electronicdata store, the contact entry further associated with a user initiationof communication with an enterprise, the contact entry furtherassociated with an issue to be resolved; associate the contact entrywith an issue category based at least in part upon the issue associatedwith the contact entry; generate an email token associated with thecontact entry in response to associating the contact entry with theissue category, the email token being a unique identifier with respectto a plurality of identifiers associated with a plurality of emailtokens in the electronic data store; generate an email associated withthe contact entry, the email associated with a tokenized email addressincorporating at least a portion of the email token, the emailcomprising a message advising that the issue is still being resolved;designate a username as a portion of a local-part of the tokenized emailaddress, the at least a portion of the email token being appended to theusername, the username associated with an original email address of theenterprise; designate a “reply-to” address of the email as the tokenizedemail address; designate a “from” address of the email as the originalemail address; send the email to at least one user email addressassociated with a user account of a user associated with the contactentry; obtain a received email sent to the tokenized email address;identify the “from” address of the received email; identify the emailtoken in the tokenized email address; identify the user accountassociated with the email token; determine that the “from” address ofthe received email corresponds to the at least one user email addressassociated with the user account; determine that the email token isassociated with a “to” address of the received email; identify the issuecategory associated with the email token; and forward the received emailto another email address based at least in part upon the issue categoryassociated with the email token.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein thecomputing device is further configured to at least: determine that the“from” address of the received email differs from the at least one useremail address; and reject the received email in response to determiningthat the “from” address differs from the at least one user emailaddress.
 4. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device isfurther configured to at least: generate an expiry window associatedwith the email, the expiry window being a period of time beginning whenthe email is sent to the at least one user email address; determine thata received date of the received email is outside of the expiry window;and reject the received email in response to determining that thereceived date of the received email is outside of the expiry window. 5.The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is furtherconfigured to at least determine that a status of the contact entry haschanged.
 6. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device isfurther configured to execute specific computer-executable instructionsto at least generate another email associated with the contact entry inresponse to determining that the issue has been resolved, the otheremail comprising another message advising that the issue has beenresolved.
 7. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device isfurther configured to at least determine whether to escalate resolvingthe issue based at least in part on a number of reply communicationsreceived from the at least one user email address.
 8. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the computing device is further configured to at leastinitiate escalation of the issue in response to a determination toescalate resolving the issue.
 9. The system of claim 2, wherein thecomputing device is further configured to at least determine anescalation state of the issue in response to receipt of an email fromthe at least one user email address regarding the issue.
 10. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: generating, by a computingdevice, a contact entry associated with a user initiated communicationwith an enterprise and a user specified issue; associating, by thecomputing device, the contact entry with an issue category based atleast in part on the user specified issue; generating, by the computingdevice, a unique token associated with the contact entry; generating, bythe computing device, a first email associated with the contact entry,the first email comprising: a “reply-to” address, wherein a local partof the “reply-to” address comprises the unique token appended to ausername, wherein the username is associated with an original emailaddress of the enterprise; and a “from” address comprising the originalemail address; sending, by the computing device, the first email to adestination address specified in the contact entry; receiving, by thecomputing device, a second email; determining, by the computing device,that a “to” address of the second email comprises the “reply-to” addressincluded in the first email; identifying, by the computing device, theunique token from the “to” address; determining, by the computingdevice, that a sender of the second email corresponds to the destinationaddress specified in the contact entry in response to identifying thatat least one email address associated with the sender of the emailcorresponds to the unique token; determining, by the computing device,that a status indicator associated with the contact entry indicates thatthe user specified issue associated with the contact entry isunresolved; generating, by the computing device, a response emailmessage comprising a message advising that the user specified issue isstill being resolved; and transmitting, by the computing device, theresponse email message to the destination address.
 11. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:determining, by the computing device, that the second email is receivedoutside an expiry window; generating, by the computing device, anexpiration rejection email message comprising a message advising thatthe second email was received outside the expiry window; andtransmitting, by the computing device, the expiration rejection emailmessage to the destination address specified in the contact entry. 12.The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the expirationrejection email message further comprises a message advising of at leastone alternative method of contact.
 13. The computer-implemented methodof claim 10, further comprising: validating, by the computing device,the status indicator associated with the contact entry corresponding tothe unique token; determining, by the computing device, that the statusindicator is not equal to an expected value; generating, by thecomputing device, a status rejection email message; and transmitting, bythe computing device, the status rejection email message to thedestination address.
 14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13,wherein the status rejection email message comprises a message advisingthat a status is not equal to the expected value.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the expected value ofthe status indicator comprises an activated state corresponding to theunique token.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, furthercomprising: determining, by the computing device, that a thresholdspecifying a maximum number of emails sent to the “reply-to” emailaddress has been satisfied; generating, by the computing device, arejection email message in response to determining that the thresholdspecifying the maximum number of emails sent to the “reply-to” emailaddress has been satisfied; and transmitting, by the computing device,the rejection email message to the destination address.
 17. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising generatinganother email associated with the contact entry in response todetermining that the user specified issue has been resolved, the otheremail comprising another message advising that the user specified issuehas been resolved.